Tuesday
09Jan
The Anti-Spam Reserves: Finally An End To Spam
Jan 9, 2007 at 01:43AM
Of course you all know I'm talking about unsolicited commercial e-mail, trackback spam, ping spam, referral spam, comment spam, scrapers and any other kind of electronic spam and not SPAM Luncheon Meats, right? I just wanted to make clear I have no beef with Hormel Foods Corporation.
A recent link from Mental Floss I found in my server logs put me to thinking of an idea I've been kicking around for a couple of years now. You see, Mental Floss, The Spam Huntress, myself, Dead Donkey, WillMacc, IncrediBILL, Damn Spam, Spam chongqing and many others, thousands of others, have been working in groups and on our own to put an end to spam. And while all of us have had some successes the problem grows bigger by the day. The current approach simply isn't working.
I can't be sure but I'd venture to guess that as much as one half of the price you and I pay our Internet Service Providers goes to cover the cost of spam. And if someone knows the actual figures I would happily post them in bold type right here:
The spam filters on my e-mail accounts capture over 3000 spam e-mails each day but dozens still get through and our governments have already proven they're not going to do anything about the problem. Fact is: President George Bush's Canned Spam Act made most kinds of spam legal.
Remember the radar detector wars: Every year a new radar detector comes out and later that same year a new radar gun is made available to police which renders last year's radar detector useless. Same goes for depending on software to end spam.
But there is a way: Call in the Anti-spam Reserves.
For those of us with the tools it isn't hard to figure out where the spam comes from and despite what many will tell you much of it originates or is paid for by companies right here in the good old US of A.
Here's my plan: The Anti-spam Reserves would be lead by the Anti-spam Rangers. It would be the job of the Rangers to find out where the spam is coming from and to coordinate the deployment of the Anti-spam Reserves in-which myself and hopefully millions more Internet users around the world would happily enlist. If a company is involved in sending spam or encouraging spam then that company becomes a target. If a company sells spamming software then that company becomes a target.
Take for example a certain company located near Dallas, Texas that is renown for their involvement in various kinds of spam. How hard would it be in a city the size of Dallas, Texas to line up 100 or more protesters to stand on the sidewalk in front of the offices of said spammer and picket them in front of live television cameras from as far away as Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana, and beyond? Right off the top of my head I think the population of Dallas is something like 8 million so how hard would it be to round up support for an issue that crosses party lines?
I don't have the ability to build the infrastructure but even though I'm currently unemployed I would gladly donate a few dollars to the cause if someone with the expertise would simply step up and say, "Dude, I'm your man!" Or woman.
Recruits could sign up to be available to demonstrate within a 50-100 mile radius of their homes. For the vast majority of the Reserves it would mean never being called-up and after a few successful demonstrations spammers would start looking for other work. And if the spam moves to India or China I'm sure most Internet users in India and China are getting pretty fed-up with spam as well.
So there you have it, a simple plan to legally end spam, all we need are a few Anti-spam Rangers with the technical skills to lead us and we're off and running. Think about it, if you're running a legitimate business how much is spam costing you? And for those of you who only use the Internet for personal reasons couldn't you stand lower prices for WiFi and wires to your home computers?
I'm ready to become a reservist, is there a ranger out there I can follow?
This message was made possible with support from readers like you. Thank you for your support.
A recent link from Mental Floss I found in my server logs put me to thinking of an idea I've been kicking around for a couple of years now. You see, Mental Floss, The Spam Huntress, myself, Dead Donkey, WillMacc, IncrediBILL, Damn Spam, Spam chongqing and many others, thousands of others, have been working in groups and on our own to put an end to spam. And while all of us have had some successes the problem grows bigger by the day. The current approach simply isn't working.
I can't be sure but I'd venture to guess that as much as one half of the price you and I pay our Internet Service Providers goes to cover the cost of spam. And if someone knows the actual figures I would happily post them in bold type right here:
The spam filters on my e-mail accounts capture over 3000 spam e-mails each day but dozens still get through and our governments have already proven they're not going to do anything about the problem. Fact is: President George Bush's Canned Spam Act made most kinds of spam legal.
Remember the radar detector wars: Every year a new radar detector comes out and later that same year a new radar gun is made available to police which renders last year's radar detector useless. Same goes for depending on software to end spam.
But there is a way: Call in the Anti-spam Reserves.
For those of us with the tools it isn't hard to figure out where the spam comes from and despite what many will tell you much of it originates or is paid for by companies right here in the good old US of A.
Here's my plan: The Anti-spam Reserves would be lead by the Anti-spam Rangers. It would be the job of the Rangers to find out where the spam is coming from and to coordinate the deployment of the Anti-spam Reserves in-which myself and hopefully millions more Internet users around the world would happily enlist. If a company is involved in sending spam or encouraging spam then that company becomes a target. If a company sells spamming software then that company becomes a target.
Take for example a certain company located near Dallas, Texas that is renown for their involvement in various kinds of spam. How hard would it be in a city the size of Dallas, Texas to line up 100 or more protesters to stand on the sidewalk in front of the offices of said spammer and picket them in front of live television cameras from as far away as Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana, and beyond? Right off the top of my head I think the population of Dallas is something like 8 million so how hard would it be to round up support for an issue that crosses party lines?
I don't have the ability to build the infrastructure but even though I'm currently unemployed I would gladly donate a few dollars to the cause if someone with the expertise would simply step up and say, "Dude, I'm your man!" Or woman.
Recruits could sign up to be available to demonstrate within a 50-100 mile radius of their homes. For the vast majority of the Reserves it would mean never being called-up and after a few successful demonstrations spammers would start looking for other work. And if the spam moves to India or China I'm sure most Internet users in India and China are getting pretty fed-up with spam as well.
So there you have it, a simple plan to legally end spam, all we need are a few Anti-spam Rangers with the technical skills to lead us and we're off and running. Think about it, if you're running a legitimate business how much is spam costing you? And for those of you who only use the Internet for personal reasons couldn't you stand lower prices for WiFi and wires to your home computers?
I'm ready to become a reservist, is there a ranger out there I can follow?
This message was made possible with support from readers like you. Thank you for your support.
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Reader Comments (2)
Billy, I'm updating my Park Seed spam post as I find the comment through search engines. Do you have any suggestions for a good search engine other than Google for comments? Technorati doesn't seem to search comments.
I would love to embarrass this company by exposing them, but it's a little much effort to visit them! Can I be a virtual Ranger?
Yes Laurie, there are ways you can help. #1 spread the word, blog about this plan and link to this post. There is a champion out there somewhere who can design the applications required and when he or she finally hears about my plan then things will begin to happen.
On the search engine question-- perhaps another reader can help as I'm not much help in that area.